Santiago Casilla out 4 weeks with hamstring strain

When Santiago Casilla went down like a sack of relievers, it looked like 2014 was gone. The next time we were going to hear from him was going to be in March, when he was assigned to extended spring training. His robotic leg was going to take some getting used to.

Instead, he's out about a month. Here's John Shea with the report:

The results of Santiago Casilla’s MRI are in: Grade 2 strain of his right hamstring. He’s expected to miss four weeks.

He was writhing around on the ground like his hamstring was replaced by an electric eel, so this is good news.

In Casilla's absence, the Giants will likely use Jean Machi as the main eighth-inning reliever, which bumps up Juan Gutierrez and Jeremy Affeldt on the depth chart. Javier Lopez is, by most accounts, still alive, and George Kontos has a chance for significant innings.

Here's what Kontos was doing in Fresno, by the way:

What a strange line. Dingers, unearned runs, strikeouts, and hardly any walks. He got a swing-through on almost a third of his swings, so I'm assuming the slider is working quite well. This should be an extended look and a good chance for Kontos. 

But the Giants are almost certainly worse without Casilla. He's allowed 58 runs in his 246 innings as a Giant, or seven more than Barry Zito allowed in the second half last year (48 innings). That's kind of a non-sequitur, but I thought it was fun.